ORCHID — It could be early next year before the town’s Local Planning Agency gets a look at a plan to build a Publix supermarket and small strip mall on County Road 510.

“Publix was looking for a December/January date,” said Town Manager Noah Powers. “But I think more reasonable time would be January for the LPA and February for the Town Council. But we certainly want it to be done before the end of March.”

Although the town’s planners, Mellgren Planning Group in Fort Lauderdale, completed initial review of the plan on Oct. 29, some questions remain for the developer’s engineering firm, Kimley-Horn and Associates of Vero Beach.

“The new plan that Publix has proposed has addressed a lot of their concerns with lighting, security and noise,” said Powers. “The LPA will have their meeting, then the Town Council will as well. At that point, all of the ideas should have come out and we’ll know where things stand.”

Vice Mayor Bob Gibbons said it will be important that the LPA and the Town Council have all of the necessary information to make informed decisions.

“It’s going to be important we make sure there’s a very thoughtful response,” said Gibbons. “We want to be in a position where we understand all the aspects of the plan that are very important to people. It’s going to be crucial that we really understand this.”

Publix proposal

Two buildings — the 31,000-square-foot supermarket and a 6,000-square-foot building with five retail stores — separated by a courtyard.